What wisdom have we discovered in coming to the threshold of new beginnings, of letting go, of changing old habits and ways of being in the beginning of this year? This question was asked from deep within the whispers of the holy to which we were invited to open up and to listen (Read the last inspiration below). When we discover this wisdom, we come to the awareness that now we need to do something with that wisdom. What new habits are we committed to making our own? What project or service to others or to our community do we wish to offer? In what relationship do we grant forgiveness? What anger do we simply release for the experience of happiness once again?
We all desire our happiness. We have many versions and definitions and promises to happiness tossed our way daily, whether be it through the latest technology, the latest alternative, the latest new device, or even by the latest deal or fashion. In reiki, we walk a spiritual path of our enlightened happiness. For me, this enlightened happiness is more than an emotional feeling. Happiness comes as a result of living my true and authentic self no matter what life may bring me. My state of happiness equally embraces the greater happiness of all creation and the created order. In other words, my happiness is simultaneously both about ‘me’ and ‘we’. My happiness is personal, communal, universal and cosmic all at the same time.
As I daily ponder the question what is my true happiness in Reiki Light meditations, and even in my wrestling with the angels, I am shown what I thought it has been and isn’t, where it is and I haven’t noticed it or even where cultural codes and corporate marketing tells me it is and yet this kind of happiness lacks true meaning and timeless satisfaction for my soul. I am shown where I deny it and where I settle for less.
An example that I sure hope generates conversation and responses is the recent release and media devotion to the movie and book “the Secret.” I decided to watch the movie in Reiki Light meditation and in openness to be transformed by it. I was, even though the ideas are very familiar to me. The transformation came in an unanticipated way, however. Briefly, in the movie, they speak of the secret to life as the need to focus our attention and energy to what we want, not to what we don’t want. The movie highlights that the thoughts and feelings we choose about how we think about our life creates our experience, our reality. Therefore, for us to be happy we need to know what we want, to want what makes us feel good and take action appropriate to what we want. All good and true!
However, herein lies the confusion for many, I believe. What is that we each truly want? And how do we explain when something we want so deeply doesn’t manifest even when we pursue it with diligence and passion? The path to knowing what we truly want needs to be discriminated and discerned in the midst of cultural codes that define success and happiness often in very limiting and disempowering ways. We furthermore need to discern our true happiness in the midst of religious doctrines and systems of beliefs that define our salvation; in the midst of family norms and loyalties that measure our value and sense of belonging; and in the midst of pharmaceutical claims and multi-media or corporate marketing, to name a few. These latter entities target our subconscious to psychologically manipulate what we buy and our perceptions of who we need to be to become happy and healthy. On the other hand, we live in a free will Universe where timing and choice can create learning curves for us. To have what we want, we may need to exercise patience, to surrender control, to demonstrate our readiness and even to wait. This waiting may serve to deepen our faith (which is beyond emotionally believing in an outcome) that Love is powerful enough to navigate through all adversity to manifest our real desire.
Moreover, how do we prioritize what we want so that we can remain in harmony and balance with the natural rhythms of our soul wisdom? Stress and overwhelm plague our morale, our bodies and our psyches. To want only what makes us emotionally “feel good” alone, as the source of our happiness, is never spiritually satisfying. We will always want more—an insatiable addiction for bigger and better and more. Ancient wisdom calls this gluttony. To truly understand what makes our soul, our spirit “feel good” is to graduate our list of wants into the realm of Spirit.
Some may argue that this is really what the movie, The Secret, is about. I believe the speakers’ intentions are good and hold truth. However, the discussion that remained absent for me is the one of context. We live on a planet that is presently in dire straits because of all our untamed, emotional wanting. Jung or Erikson defined this sole focus on the emotional self as narcissism. More recently, we have named its subcategory as entitlement. We live in a time where consumer capitalism and the historic model of the “corporation” are designed to have only one goal: to make money for its stockholders. As an entity, the ‘corporation’, legally deemed a person, has no ethical conscience or heart awareness. My invitation to you is simply, do you know the difference between what your heart spiritually desires and what you think you want at the emotional level? When the emotional and the spiritual become aligned, connected in their integrity, then we can attract our real desires and experience our enlightened happiness.
In my wrestling with the angels to manifest my happiness, I have come to believe that it is equally time to graduate our emotional wanting into the realm of awakened spiritual desires. When we align our true heart desires with universal wisdom for happiness and enlightenment, we discover what it means to know and desire what we want. We even discover what it means to be responsible for what we want. Indeed, there is abundance. Of course we can have prosperity. Absolutely, we have unlimited potential. There is an abundance of creative ideas, of goodness, of power, of love, of vision and of purpose. I invite you to bring together how your true happiness supports and heals your communal relationship with the Earth. You may find your own path in this relationship. I have certainly experienced Reiki to be powerful and transforming in my pilgrimage to my enlightened happiness.
If you haven’t seen the movie, I still invite you to ask yourself the questions I have posed and reflect on the above discussion. This discussion, I admit, is not complete. Nor is it designed to be. Wrestle with your angels to discover what is really, really true for you. What are you inspired to name in your Truth and Love that enlightens your happiness? Act on that!
©Shirley Martin
